Environment Training

CHENNAI: Speakers at a meeting organised by Centre for Water Resources (CWR) on Monday called for an interdisciplinary approach in water resources management and for imparting training to young professionals to meet new challenges.

Keshav Kumar, IGP (Prisons), has been invited to Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, to train Uttarakhand police officials in investigating and prosecuting wildlife crime cases. Kumar is to take lecture sessions on Saturday and Sunday at the institute. Uttarakhand has been hit by a recent surge of poaching cases of tigers and sloth bears

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Projects have been invited from voluntary organisations, schools, colleges, governmental and non-governmental organisations in Kerala and Lakshadeep for the national environment awareness programme organised Union Forest Ministry and Centre for Environment and Development from November 24, 2008, to February 27, 2009. The topic foer the year will be climate change. Applications with necessary documents should reach Executive Director, Centre for Environment and Development, Thozhuvancode, Vattiyurkavu, Thiruvananthapuram-695013, before August 25.

Will provide post-retirement solution for Army men, boost rural economy DEHRA DUN: An Army Bio Ressource Centre to train retiring personnel in rural technologies so as to enhance their post-retirement earnings will be established here with the help of the Himalayan Environmental Studies Conservation and Research Organisation (HESCO).

Indian Army Environment and Ecology Cell in collaboration with Bombay Natural History Society conducted a conservation education workshop for senior students at Amity Public School in Delhi Cantonment here earlier this week. Titled "Energy and water audit programme and bio-diversity', the workshop was aimed at highlighting the importance of conserving water, electricity and other resources for a better future.

With the North-east teeming with 63 species of bamboo, which account for nearly 50 per cent of the total species of woody monocots found in India, the Deovan-based Rain Forest Research Institute here is gearing up to emerge as a

Often termed as poor man's timber, bamboo, with its various new applications can well be an alternative housing solution for the earthquake prone areas due to its high tensile strength structurally. Exploring the use of bamboo as an alternative to the rapidly depleting wood resources in housing and other industrial activities, a three-day residential training programme on modern bamboo structures and housing will be organised at Kohra, Kaziranga National Park from March 6 to 8, 2008. The programme is jointly organised by Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre and Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The programme aims to provide technical know-how on the use of the bamboo technology as a whole, particularly in the housing sector and in varied structural applications. "For the first time a workshop of such magnitude on bamboo technology is being organised in Kaziranga dealing with the new applications of bamboo other than the traditional use,' said the sources in the CBTC. The programme, targeting the civil engineers, architects, consultants, builders, developers contractors, entrepreneurs and NGOs among others, would have partici-pants mainly from North East as well as neighbouring Nepal. The training programme would elaborately deal with the topics including bamboo of NE India, availability and suitability for building construction, the structure of bamboo and its mechanical and engineering properties, durability and preservation of bamboo, code an standards bamboo in building construction, bamboo structures for eco-tourism and earthquake prone areas, introduction to bamboo applications for industrial and housing materials, engineered bamboo products and its usefulness in housing industry, bamboo construction for rural housing and bamboo policies and impact on national and regional developmental issues. In order to tap the abundant bamboo resources of the North East; the North Eastern Council (NEC) launched the North East Regional Bamboo Mission aimed at sustainable development of the bamboo sector. The CBTC, established in 2000 is a registered body under the auspices of the NEC, which is carrying out the mandate of the North East Bamboo Mission since October 2004. The CBTC has now undertaken a wide range of bamboo constructions in and around the NE region both in public and private sectors. On the other hand, the BMTPC is actively involved in developing bamboo-based technologies and promoting those technologies in the bamboo growing areas including the North East.